


The Art of Keeping It Together

by RedConverse



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, I'm gonna try and write a slowburn but I'm also very impatient, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Lestrade is a teacher, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-29 11:17:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20081332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedConverse/pseuds/RedConverse
Summary: Sherlock has never been to a normal school but that's okay, it seems to be even worse than he imagined. Even if most the people in his new school are dicks the head of the journalism clubs seems to like him.Pass GCSEs and do well in lessons, easy. Don't fall in love with your friend, surprisingly hard.Read at your own risk, I don’t know if I’ll ever update this!





	1. Trying to survive an english lesson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any tags/characters that haven't appeared in the story yet will be added in later chapters. Please be forgiving of any spell or grammar mistakes :)

One mystery Sherlock would never understand was school. Well that was a lie, give him a few weeks and he’ll probably figure it out. What he was really baffled by was why Mycroft had sent him to one. He’d been homeschooled his entire life but apparently by moving in with Mycroft he’d also agreed to go to regular school. Regular school was going to be undoubtedly boring. Sherlock wasn’t just a ‘gifted student’ he was an embodiment of intelligence. The school wouldn’t have allowed him to join GCSE year otherwise, which was hilarious. He could learn the entire GCSE curriculum in one term. He should probably have them thank him in advance for boasting the school’s grade average. 

“This will be good for you, brother. A typical teenager should be in school socialising besides I do not have the money nor the time to find you a tutor to replace mother,” Mycroft’s insufferable voice echoed around his head. He clearly wasn’t a typical teenager and Mycroft absolutely had the money and time to find him a tutor. An atypical teenager,like himself, has close to no chance of surviving the hellish experience that was British highschool.

The sleek black car pulled up to the large concrete mass that Sherlock was trapped in for the next year. It was a daunting sight really, teenagers festering in every area around the building and all of them were staring. Does no on drive to school here? Perhaps it was one of those ‘unspoken rules’ Sherlock could never remember.

“A car will come to pick you up at four,” said the driver.

“I was told lessons end at three?” 

“ They do but no driver can pick you up then, you will simply have to take on some after-school activities,” the man was clearly bored with the conversation and waiting for Sherlock to leave already. Begrudgingly he got out the car. It was almost impossible that there was no driver to pick him up at three considering that Mycroft had at least fifteen drivers at his disposal, making it more likely that Mycroft simply wanted Sherlock to join clubs and be forced to make friends. On the list of irritating things about his brother his need to interfere with everything was high up there for the younger Holmes. 

The car sped away and Sherlock finally decided to properly look at his new peers. The group of girls to his right were quite clearly low of the school food chain due to their lack of conventional beauty and based purely on the way they held themselves he could tell several of them had less than ideal home lives. The boys to his left were all high although some of them seemed to be high of things much stronger than the typical weed (Sherlock noted who the supplier of the group was for future reference). He continued to deduce things about the people around him until something hit him in the back.

“Who are you, Gaylord? Never seen you around here before, I’d remember a bender like you,” Sneered the boy who had evidently been the one to hit him. The boy had a shaved head and a good build, a rugby player most definitely. He was surrounded by more boys who were likely his fellow rugby players, none of them notable other than the blond one by his side who seemed much less pleased with his friends display than all the others.

“If you need to know, I’m Sherlock,” his response was clearly not enough for the bald boy as he shoved yet again. 

“Well, Sherly, you should watch where you decide to stand next time. People don’t like people who get in their way,” with that he left with the rest of his friends. Well, it seemed all the mindless teen dramas Sherlock had watched to prepare himself for high school were right. The mean bully who picked on the new kid was a real thing that happened. At least the lesson would be enjoyable. 

A quarter of an hour into English and Sherlock was ready to give up on the world. Everything he had ‘learned’ in his lessons were either things he already knew or completely useless and now the school was telling him to care about the key themes in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’! This entire class was entirely useless and he refused to give it his attention. Soon he’d be done, he just needed to get through this then whatever club he decided to do. More worksheets he wouldn’t do were given out, more things were written on the whiteboard and more of Sherlock’s brain cells were lost until finally the teacher said, “Alright our times up. Please, if you didn’t complete the work sheets do it as homework. See you next lesson!” 

It seemed extra activities weren’t very popular here. On Monday there were only five possible options according to the notice board: dance, hockey, swimming, calligraphy and journalism. The sporting activities (including dance) were definitely a no, calligraphy was simply dull and he had no need for journalism. Sherlock continued stand indecisively in front of the board until someone came up to him.

“Hey, you trying to pick a club?” It was the blond boy from before, his name was John obviously as all the exercise books he was holding had that name on them unless they weren’t his, unlikely. He seemed hesitant to talk to Sherlock, nervous, judging by his continuous fidgeting.

“Yes but none of them seem particularly fun nor useful,” despite his cold tone John was clearly relieved by his response. 

“Well I do journalism. I’m actually the head of the club,” he smiled proudly, “so you could, ya know, join us?”

“Do any of your rugby friends do it?” John winced.

“No, they think it’s stupid. Most of them go home a three anyway,” Sherlock considered this for a second. Clearly John didn’t hold any malicious in tensions and the idea of not going into the club completely alone was appealing…

“Alright, I’ll join journalism.” 

“Great! We can walk together. I’m John by the way,” he stuck out his free hand which Sherlock ignored completely in favour of walking in the direction he believed journalism to be.

“I know.”

“You know?” John questioned, walking beside him.

“Your books clearly state your name,” John looked at the books in his hand then at Sherlock giving him an amused smile. Maybe Journalism was the right choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this first chapter! I really admire people who write really long slow burns because I get bored so easily. All critisim is welcome! This is only my second fanfiction and my very first for the Sherlock fandom. 
> 
> If you didn't know GCSEs are the big scary public exams everyone in the UK has to take. You usually prepare for them from year 9 to year 10 (the year you take them). 
> 
> Incase you were wondering here are some age references:  
Sherlock and John: 16  
Mycroft:26  
Others to be added


	2. True crime and gossip columns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sherlock finds himself really enjoying the club and the company of the people in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m honestly impressed I managed to get this chapter up so quickly after the first one even if it’s not as long as I’d like.
> 
> Please enjoy and be forgiving of any spelling/grammar mistakes I missed.

John led Sherlock to a small classroom where journalism was held. The room was definitely out of the way, in fact it seemed to have originally been a storage room of some kind. There were three other people in the room, one of them was his english teacher who he was less than pleased to see; the other two were girls he hadn’t seen yet. One was wearing a purple jumper over her uniform and the other a leather jacket. They both appeared to be friends, chatting and laughing with each other.

“Hello John! You brought us a new recruit then?” Said the english teacher, what was his name? 

“Yep, his name is Sherlock and he’s new to the school so if everyone,” John looked pointedly at the girl in the jacket, “is welcoming that would be great.”

“Hello again Sherlock I’m glad to see you again. I have a lot of marking to do so these three will have to show you the ropes for the time being.” 

“Thank you, could you tell me your name again? I seem to have deleted it,” Sherlock said rather tactlessly though this did not seem to faze the teacher as he let out a small chuckle.

“Mr Lestrade, Sherlock. Try not to ‘delete it’ this time,” whilst his words could have been condescending his tone betrayed an oddly comforting friendliness. Mr Lestrade seemed to be more tolerable when he wasn’t teaching, clearly at ease in the company of only a few students. It seemed everyone already knew what they were doing, laptops out, typing intensely and Sherlock just stood unsure of what to do. John showed him a bit of pity and beckoned him over to the desk he had sat himself at. He went over and sat next to the blond, the desk was clearly only meant for on and the tight squeeze to fit both the boys caused them to be much closer than either were comfortable with. No matter how he contorted his body Sherlock couldn’t stop it.

“Do you have a laptop with you?” John asked, trying his best to ignore how pressed together they were. 

“Not today sorry.”

“That’s fine, completely fine. We can just share,” John gave him a sweet smile that Sherlock couldn’t resist to return, “so in journalism club we write things for the school paper. Irene, there in the leather jacket, writes the gossip column. That feature is quite infamous actually, I mean, you can guess why. One too many articles about the school staff’s ‘personal affairs’ has caused many problems but it’s our most popular segment so, what can you do? Molly does science and medicine which includes reporting on new discoveries in those fields and giving the student body advice for anonymous questions they write in. Lots of variety. Do either of those options tickle your fancy?” Sherlock thought for a second. He couldn’t imagine himself writing about the school gossip especially considering how much of it would go over his head, whilst Sherlock didn’t like admitting his short-comings he was aware of his social ineptitude. Science was something Sherlock knew a lot more and had an interest in but writing page upon page about sounded dull, he always preferred experiments over theories. 

“What about you?” Sherlock asked him. 

“Me? Oh, my part of the paper definitely isn’t publish worthy or anything but if you would really like to know then, I write about people. Their stories, what they’ve accomplished, things I admire them for. I try to keep it local to make it relevant, sometimes I even get to interview whoever I’m writing about. Don’t get your hopes up they’re never big celebrities mostly school athletes if I’m entirely honest,” just from the way he talked about it Sherlock knew John loved what he wrote and clearly did it for his own enjoyment and no one else’s. That’s what Sherlock needed, something he loved and could spend hours talking about. He doubted he would be allowed to do a segment on different drugs and their effects on people so he only had one other topic.

“Could I do a piece on true crime?” John could have reacted to that in many ways: disgust, confusion, even anger and it wouldn’t have surprised Sherlock but his smile and kind ‘if that’s what you want’ struck Sherlock. Most people found his little obsession with unique and unsolvable murders worrying or even scary but John was acting as if he had requested to write about gardening or something equally mundane. 

“I will find an interesting case for the paper then.” 

“Perfect just please send it to me by the end of Friday’s club meeting. I’m afraid for the time being you’ll have to just watch me while I write, you really can’t do anything else.” So that was exactly what Sherlock did. The hour passed by in mostly silence occasionally interpreted by Sherlock informing John of a spelling mistake he had made or some unasked for insight on what sentences sounded too clunky. 

At five to four Mr Lestrade congratulated them on an hour well spent then dismissed the four students. Walking out of the building together Sherlock found he enjoyed listening to his club mates chat, not because it was about anything interesting just because they did it so easily. Though he was a newcomer to the group he was able to insert himself into the conversation easily with no reluctance to include him from any of the other three. 

“Sherlock, fancy coming with us to the park? We go there together after every meeting normally,” John said. He didn’t seem to be doing this as just a polite gesture, at least nothing indicated so and as tempting as the offer was Sherlock found himself resisting the idea. He wanted to but something inside him was saying no. A feeling in his stomach warning him he was getting too close, that he needed to leave. 

“No. No, thank you. I have someone picking me up now anyway, I’m making them wait as we speak,” his rejection clearly disappointed John but he made no objections to it, just said his goodbye and told him he’d see him tomorrow.

Sherlock felt relief as soon as he was in the car. He knew he should have been happy, this was exactly what he wanted five seconds ago but once the car was moving away from the tall concrete building he couldn’t stop the regret that followed. He should have gone with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Any kudos or comments really do help me find motivation to write. As usual any and all criticism is welcome.  
I’m trying to get myself more organised with this story and have even planned the next few chapters. I do like writing this a lot and have quite the plan for where I want this to go.  
Part of the reason I wrote this so quickly was because I had been planning on using my spare time to read a book but I couldn’t find a nice love story between two girls and instead settled on writing my own little love story. For any fellow wlw ladies, don’t worry, the lesbians will arrive eventually in this story but this is supposed to be a slow burn so patience is key.
> 
> Here are the age references for the new characters in this chapter:  
Mr Lestrade 24  
Molly and Irene are 16 
> 
> Thank you again for reading!!!!


End file.
